Your general customer around the holidays may be looking for good deals. So, ask yourself what “a good deal” is. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the product is at the lowest price they’ve ever seen. If they were only looking for the lowest price possible, they would have already gone online at 3:00 in the morning to bid on the item from an auction site.

They are shopping in your store to get a good feel for what the product is all about. It’s not easy to get a secure feeling about the quality and craftsmanship of a product when you’re looking at a two dimensional product online. This is why web sites spend big bucks creating three dimensional views that can be enlarged to show more detail.

So, consider your advantage here. You have the product in your store. Now the goal is to convince the customer that the product that you carry is worth the price that you’re asking. Not only that, but that it is “a good deal” by virtue of the fact that the quality is undeniable. The customer can look, touch, feel, hold, test, and try out products in your boutique or retail store. Testing the product with their senses helps customers to make an educated decision about what they’re willing to pay.

Your goal is to get them to feel confident enough to pay the price that you want. Many things can influence what a customer thinks when they’re inside of a store. Just assume that everyone is coming in skeptical. They’re making snap judgments with every glance and touch. Their ability to quickly deduce how they feel from their first impression of your store is something that you need to cater to.

Make the customer immediately comfortable with everything that they see. Exhibit quality from your entrance to your dressing room, so that nothing throws them off of their positive path of assumption. Make sure that they don’t feel cramped by spreading out your garment racks and retail displays. Avoid harsh lighting and only use spotlights to deter shoplifting and showcase certain products. You don’t want someone to be able to take cover by reaching into a garment rack to slip something into their purse, but you do not want to put them on edge and make them distrustful of your store.

Work on your presentation, quality displays, neatness, and customer service to ensure that this holiday season will be a successful one.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of garment racks including clothing racks. Find a high quality garment rack or clothing rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

Suggestive selling is also known as “up selling” or “add-on selling”. Customers generally expect suggestive selling. If you are selling them a game system and don’t let them know that the controller is separate, then they would leave feeling like you didn’t do your job. You should always try to let the customer know about products related to what they are buying so that they can decide if they want it or not.

Suggestive selling can even be used on your web site. If someone is looking at an item or selects it for their cart, you can have a pop-up that shows them the accessories and products that go with it. You can even use that point to offer a discount if the products are bought together. Up selling someone often gives them a better deal, even if they are spending more money.

Offering benefits to your customers that accept the up sale is a great way to gain customer loyalty. Even customers that don’t buy more appreciate that you offered them a deal and remember that the next time that they are shopping.

Retail workers should always at least ask if the customer would like to upgrade or add on to their order. If you don’t ask, you don’t sell. Suggestive selling is an easy way to offer customer service in a way that also increases profits and salespersons’ confidence.

Train your staff to make a habit of asking for sales. Instead of saying, “That shirt looks great on you!” your staff should say something like; “I’m going to let you see how great that shirt looks with this skirt and hat. We also have really cute jewelry that really brings the whole thing together. Oh, that all looks great! Would you like for me to hold it at the register for you?” Making suggestions will help customers to see what all you have to offer just in case they didn’t think of it before.

You can use garment rack displays and mannequin displays to accomplish suggestive selling without saying a word. Hang shirts and skirts that look good together on the same garment racks so that customers will automatically assume that they go together. Dress a mannequin with all of the matching accessories so that people will consider more products to go with the featured one that they really like. Suggestive selling is something that can provide a service to your customers while increasing your sales and profits. Make sure that your staff is trained in the art of suggestive selling and see how your profits can soar.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of garment racks including clothing racks. Find a high quality garment rack or clothing rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

You need to have a hook. Your program needs to be enticing enough to make your customers want to sign up. Additionally, the program needs to be easy to understand. It is preferable if your associates can explain the program in one, short statement. For example, “Put your e-mail address here if you would like to receive a 40% off coupon to use on your next visit.” The sentence tells the customer everything that they need to know. All you need is their e-mail address and they will receive a coupon for 40% off. Simple and to the point is key.

The process of signing up has to be fast and easy. If customers have to fill out more than two bits of information, they are not likely to do it. In fact, if they only think that it may be more involved, they’ll shy away from hearing any more information. A statement like, “Do you want to sign up for our rewards program?” can make almost every customer immediately say, “No thanks”. It gives the impression that they will have to fill out a lot of information and read a lot about how this program works. Avoid statements that give the customer an immediate out before they know what your program is about.

Remember that it can cost less to keep old customers than to invest in the advertising that it could take to find new ones. Treat your customers with respect. Respect their time and don’t expect them to go out of their way to participate in a program. Make it simple. Keep a database of their purchases so that returns and earning rewards are easy. Hand out frequent shopper cards and let them quickly know that they can use it to earn rewards, like discounts or free products.

Advertise your rewards programs outside of your front window. People sometimes look for deals and visit stores that have them. You can put discreet signs in your fitting rooms, display them on your clothing racks, and put reminders by your registers. They could be looking for a price atop your clothing rack and quickly learn about your rewards program.

However you do it, make it easy and attractive to your customers. You could find that it’s easy to keep your customers coming back and spending more than you ever thought possible before.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of clothing racks including garment racks. Find a high quality clothing rack or garment rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

1) First you should determine the goal of the promotion. If it is to boost sales, then you can reduce prices. If you want to get new customers into your store, then you should use catchy signage outside of the store or in the storefront window. You might contact current customers via e-mail and send them a coupon for a discount if they bring in a friend. If you want to create loyal customers, then you should promote items that need to be replaced so that the customers you draw will have to come back again when they want more.

2) Make sure that the appearance of your store communicates your mission, your style, and your intention. Your window displays should be interesting and eye catching. Use multiple products in the windows to help boost the sales of accessories. People that see accessorized outfits on mannequins are more likely to buy multiple pieces of the outfit, not just the shirt or jeans that you have on sale.

3) Use appropriate signage and displays. If you are having a major clearance sale, then it is absolutely appropriate to bring a garment rack packed with clothes outside of the door. This is a great way to grab customers as they pass by and communicate to them that you’re selling deeply discounted clothing. Bright and bold signs are appropriate for this kind of sale as well. For more refined or conservative sales and promotions, you should use only small tasteful signs. The message should be understated. Garment racks should not be stuffed full and display tables shouldn’t be stacked high.

4) Train your staff on how you want the customers treated. If you’re promoting higher end clothing and accessories, your employees should dress the part. No one wants to buy a $1000 dress from a kid in a t-shirt and jeans who waves at them from the register and continues with their cell phone conversation. People shopping for more unique or sophisticated clothing want to be taken care of, or even pampered. Make sure that your employees are attentive and aware of the tone that you want them to use with your customers.

5) Keep it clean. As people come in and check out your promotional items, they will most likely be unfolding, feeling, and investigating your products. People don’t want to spend all day refolding the clothes that they were looking through. It is expected that an employee of the store will take care of it. Have your employees be proactive, folding clothing or straightening a garment rack as they patrol the floor. If they see someone trying to refold something, they should go take it and say, “Let me get that for you so you can relax while you shop.” Little gestures like these will help you to sell more, create good impressions, and keep customers coming back for more.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of garment racks including clothing racks. Find a high quality garment rack or clothing rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

Some promotions and displays should be rotated regularly into your schedule, rather it be seasonally or annually. Promotions that come around regularly are called cyclical promotions. When a season or holiday is approaching, you can prepare by figuring out the best way to promote your products. Get visual ideas or inspiration from other stores, art, or online displays. If you can make your store’s display unique, it is sure to attract attention and help people to remember you when the promotion is over.

You will need to adequately inform your customers of your promotions when they come around. Try to collect e-mail addresses or physical addresses throughout the year. Send out newsletters and special offers periodically so that your customers will be aware and look forward to your events. Use signs and your staff to communicate promotions to your in-store customers or people passing by.

There can be many opportunities year round to have a promotion. Local sporting events or other celebrations can be used to draw attention to supporting your local organization. You can donate money to different local causes and gain attention for yourself as a valuable local business. Offer discounts or early bird specials to local college students, or people that donate to your charity. Feature local artists’ work in your store and bring community awareness to your door. You can collaborate with other businesses in your district or area to offer block parties, sidewalk sales, and other promotions that get attention.

Lowering your prices isn’t always the best idea. Find ways to make people see the value in the items that you offer, rather than making them think that something must be wrong with the merchandise for it to be so cheap. You might make some money in the short term, but you’ll make people want to wait for your big sales to shop at your store. Or worse, you’ll make them think that you are normally overcharging, and lower their impression of your entire business.

Keep things changing by rearranging your clothing racks and displays on a regular basis. Choose an interesting garment rack that people don’t see in every store. Breaking up the monotony of shopping is the easiest way to start making your store unique. Most stores use garment racks with function in mind, but if you choose ones that are functional as well as unique, you will stand out from the competition.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of garment racks including clothing racks. Find a high quality garment rack or clothing rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

As a business owner, you should be aware that online shoppers are savvier than ever. You can’t just set up a cute site with pictures and prices expecting people to be “wooed” by graphics. Customers want to see that you are divulging as much information as possible. Having clear and concise product descriptions will help you to gain the confidence of your shoppers.

Turning browsers into customers is your main focus when setting up your online shop. Consider everything that a customer may want to ask about a product and provide that information up front. Furthermore, determine what the customer might notice if they were physically touching the product and divulge that information as well. Sizing guides, fabric content, product care information, measurements, weight and feel are all important aspects.

However, you should be careful not to make descriptions too wordy. Be clear and concise. Links or balloons that pop-up additional information can be helpful. Customer reviews and product ratings are weighed heavily by consumers. Commonly asked questions are good to include on your product page. Anything that increases the customer’s confidence will help you turn a browser into a customer. Things like advertising your “no hassle return policy”, live chat customer service, or special deals for customers that leave reviews will help you to get the customers involved and comfortable with your business.

Try to give the shopper an in-store experience through your web site. Use decorations in your store to inspire your web designs to keep the same look and feel that they get while shopping in-store. Use pictures that actually communicate the uniqueness of the garment to the customer. 360 degree views, extreme zooms, and virtual store shopping experiences are a plus. A really great idea would be if a shopper could virtually look around the store, click on the clothing racks they were interested in and shop that clothing rack. In boutiques, surprises should lurk around every corner, clothing racks should be filled with interesting items and displays, and shoppers should experience a feeling that they don’t get in any department store. Capture this with your web shop and you’ll be golden.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of clothing racks including garment racks. Find a high quality clothing rack or garment rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

Selecting the appropriate merchandise is essential. This part of the job is usually considered the most fun by boutique owners. However, it can also be the most painstaking and time consuming part of the job, too. The right merchandise will jump out at you, scream, “I’m unique”, and excite you to put it in your store.

Before you decide to carry something, there are a few questions to ask yourself. Ask yourself the following questions.

1) Does this item fit in with the rest of the merchandise?
2) Does this item fit in with my vision and goals for the store?
3) Would my customer base be excited to see this item?
4) Would my customers actually want to purchase this item?
5) Would I make enough profit off of this item to warrant carrying it?

Once you’ve decided to invest in an item or brand, remember that displaying it is as important as carrying it. If you don’t show it in the right light and in an interesting way, then it will go unnoticed and you have probably just wasted a lot of time, energy, and money getting it into the store.

Promoting new brands or lines of clothing can be a very effective tool. If you have a mailing list or an e-mail notification list, a social networking page, or any other way of communicating directly with your current customers, then do it. Let them know that you are now carrying the brand, or use the item as a focal point of the e-mail or mailer. Customers that like your style will likely see what you see in the item and be inclined to come in and shop. This is especially true if you offer a coupon or other incentive for coming in. Many people won’t shop unless they have a coupon or there is a promotion going on.

Once you get them into the store, think about how you position the items that you want to focus on. Position your garment racks to draw attention to certain items. A boutique garment rack is more interesting than a standard rack. It is usually more ornate, holds fewer items, and utilizes shelves, bars, pegs, and hooks to keep the display looking rich and interesting. Using garment racks like this can help you to draw attention to the areas that you want to focus on.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of garment racks including clothing racks. Find a high quality garment rack or clothing rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

If you are not in a position to hire your own visual merchandiser or visual merchandising team, then you will want to do some research before you attempt to do it yourself. You don’t want to neglect certain areas of need.

The first step is to go over your business plan. What is your theme? Does your store look like you envisioned it? Does it communicate to the customer the types of messages that you wanted it to? This is the first step because the look and feel of your store can make a huge impact on a customer’s decision to buy, enter your store, or return for repeat business. Keeping the visual displays in your store congruent with your vision is important for branding your image.

Work on window displays and keep them up to date with promotions and the seasons. A window display that changes often is eye catching and keeps customers interested. Make sure that your signage also conveys the message that you want. Large signs with big fonts communicate discount deals while smaller signs give you a more subtle approach and prepare customers for spending more money. You don’t want to lure in people looking for cheap deals and then surprise them with your pricey merchandise. It’s ineffective and can hurt your store’s image.

Even the arrangement of your clothing racks can have an impact on the visual feeling that your store portrays. Garment racks that are close together give the store a busier feel. A garment rack that is packed with merchandise makes people think that the items are cheaper, like clearance items. Leaving space between one clothing rack and the next gives people room to leisurely shop. Having space between the clothing on the rack subliminally prepares customers for a higher price tag.

Keep all of your displays arranged in alignment with your prices and the message that you want to portray. Visual merchandising is all about making the customer feel how you want them to feel. Identify your target market, figure out how they want to feel when they make a purchase, and go from there. If they want to feel unique, make sure that you don’t put out too many of one item. Make them feel like they are one of the only people that will buy this item. Take all of these tips and work them into your displays and you will be building the brand image that you want in no time.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of garment racks including clothing racks. Find a high quality clothing rack or garment rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

Annual merchandising refers to promotions and merchandising displays that you present annually. These would be cyclical promotions, for instance, at the change of the seasons. When a season change is approaching, you must prepare by ordering interesting products, figuring out which products will be the focus of your displays, and how you are going to promote them.

Promotions need to span every area of distribution that you have in your boutique. You may need to send out mailers, have in-store promotion signage, give special deals through your web site or e-mail list, and publish promotions in your newsletter or catalog.

Opportunity merchandising refers to promotions and merchandising displays that you produce during times of opportunity. Holidays, back to school time, sporting events, or local celebrations can be opportunities to have a promotion. Capitalize on events like these by keeping up with current events, especially in your area. You may offer discounts to students who bring in their football ticket stubs, or customers who bring in museum receipts. Other businesses in your area may be willing to let you display business cards or flyers in their establishment if you offer these kinds of promotions.

Clearance merchandising is different. Having a clearance sale is great to do when there isn’t much else going on. Make sure that you promote your clearance sale the same as you would any other type of promotion.

Merchandising clearance items may be a little tricky, because you don’t necessarily want the items that aren’t selling or that you don’t have much of to be the main focus of your store. You want people to come in and help you get rid of excess merchandise, but you also want to take that opportunity to grab their interest about the more expensive and current items on display. This is why sidewalk sales are so effective. They help you to promote your clearance sale, but also lure people inside of the store that normally may not shop with you.

Keep things interesting and always changing by rearranging your clothing racks and displays regularly. Choose an interesting garment rack that has many levels of display to keep things from getting boring. Many garment racks are designed with boutiques in mind. They help to individually display unique items and tap into the market of people who like boutiques because of their uniquely scarce offerings.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of clothing racks including garment racks. Find a high quality garment rack or clothing rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.

Black Friday is an important day for retailers. This day marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Advertisers have made Black Friday a very popular shopping day. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade features the arrival of Santa and the Christmas season. Business owners know that people will be spending a lot of money the day after Thanksgiving, so they strive to get as much of that business as possible.

If you run a boutique, you will also want to prepare for this momentous event. Many stores open really early, as early as 4:00 AM to let shoppers in. They advertise special deals for weeks before the event. If you want to get in on the action, then you need to make sure that your customers and potential customers know that they will be getting great deals when they shop in your boutique on Black Friday.

Competition will be steep. Most people will determine what they are going to buy and from what stores before they go out shopping. You may need to advertise exact prices, even if you normally don’t. Many companies will list on their web site a Black Friday list, revealing what will be on sale and for how much. However, they will usually only do this at the last minute because they are worried that their competitors will simply beat their prices and get all the business from savvy shoppers. But, boutiques have unique apparel and gifts that aren’t usually going to be sold at the competitions’ boutiques. So, you can reveal some of your prices without worrying about other companies undercutting you.

Getting the word out is so important for boutiques because you will be competing with the big department stores for shoppers’ time. Sending out coupons or e-mails with printable coupons is a good way to get on shoppers’ agendas. Be prepared for a crowd by having plenty of workers on hand. If you decide to open early to get some of the die-hard Black Friday shoppers, offer your employees special incentives, breakfast, coffee, and other perks to ensure that they are prepared for a long hard day.

Stress the fact that garment racks and clothing racks need to be kept stocked and straight all day. Make sure you have enough inventory on hand so that you don’t miss out on sales. Full displays sell more items. An organized garment rack display looks attractive and appealing. Your signage, presentation, organization, and communication are so important.

After Black Friday, you can have a Cyber Monday sale to sell what you didn’t on Friday. The Monday after Thanksgiving is a huge online shopping day. People have determined what they need to buy that they didn’t get on Black Friday, or they’ve simply decided to avoid the crowds. Make sure that you tell your Black Friday shoppers about the Cyber Monday sale when they are leaving.

If you don’t make as much as you had hoped, there are still a few weeks before Christmas. Retailers still make a big percentage of their money for the year on the few days before Christmas.

About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of clothing racks including garment racks. Find a high quality garment rack or clothing rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.